Jean Baptiste Dumas (1800-188U) was an outstanding experimental chemist who gave a sense of direction to the study of organic chemistry in the second quarter of the 19th century. He did this by framing hypotheses boldly and fruitfully, believing in the simplicity of nature's fundamental relationships and a need for classification as a means of emphasising this. Stress has been placed on the important period of, Dumas' formation in Geneva, his research in physiology and the transition period in Paris where he was drawn to chemical research by appointments at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Athenee.
An interest in industrial chemistry led to his textbook in applied chemistry and to the founding of an industrial journal and school. In the College de France he gave an influential course on chemical philosophy. His election to the Academy in 1832 was followed by appointments to the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, where he gained a reputation as an outstanding professor of chemistry, and a guide for research students, both French and foreign.
His practical contributions to chemistry included procedures for measuring vapour densities, organic nitrogen analysis and accurate determination of atomic weights, to which he was led by Prout's hypothesis. His unique combination of creative intuition, sound judgment, a strong reliance on experimental data and a virtually limitless capacity for work made possible his seminal contributions to the theory of organic chemistry: ethers, amides, substitution, types, a law of fat acids. New compounds were discovered as a result, but more important, he laid the foundations for more general modes of classification, the homologues and types of one of his students, Gerhardt. Dumas was the first to make extensive and successful use of chemical formulae and equations to explain reactions in organic chemistry.
His influence on classification of the elements and atomic theory was profound. This thesis provides the necessary documentation to integrate the various aspects of Dumas' life and work up to 1850, after which he became increasingly involved in national politics and administration
